The Days of the Beloved

Berkeley: University of California Press, 1974. Re-issued by New Delhi: Orient Longman, 1988 and 2013.

This is an evocation of the times of Mahbub Ali Pasha, the sixth Nizam of Hyderabad, a charismatic to the throne in 1869 at age 2 and occupying it until his death in 1911, the author treats him as the last of the Arabian Nights rulers. Much of the book is oral history, from interviews with 80- and 90-year old descendants of the people detailed in the book. It was those interviews that were Mohini Alexander’s main contribution to the book, for she knew the people and spoke their languages. The rest came from archival research in London, New Delhi, and Hyderabad.